Facebook wants you to know it’s not the only website that collects data from users.
The company addressed users’ concerns about privacy, which were highlighted during CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill last week, in a news release that tries to shift the conversation to Twitter, YouTube, and others participating in the same data-collecting methods that have earned Facebook scorn.
In the news release, Facebook’s product management director, David Baser, offered a detailed explanation of Facebook’s data collection methods. Baser explained that users can be tracked if they provide their Facebook log-in information to third-parties, but also if they are not even a Facebook user at all. This is because sites other use Facebook’s services, such as their social plugins and analytics, to make their websites more interactive and to glean information about their audiences.
As Baser explained, “When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account. This is because other apps and sites don’t know who is using Facebook.”
Baser brought attention to the fact that Facebook’s largest competitors — Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and Pinterest — also collect data the same way, by obtaining information on likes, shares, and/or analytics on their respective sites:
Many companies offer these types of services and, like Facebook, they also get information from the apps and sites that use them. Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn all have similar Like and Share buttons to help people share things on their services. Google has a popular analytics service. And Amazon, Google and Twitter all offer login features. These companies — and many others — also offer advertising services. In fact, most websites and apps send the same information to multiple companies each time you visit them.
In explaining the kind of data that Facebook receives from outside services that use its features, Facebook said the practice is standard for sites, including YouTube:
This happens for any other service the site is using. For example, when you see a YouTube video on a site that’s not YouTube, it tells your browser to request the video from YouTube. YouTube then sends it to you.
While Facebook’s explanation may still be too complicated to understand for some members of Congress, it sheds light on the fact that if users are concerned about their privacy online, Facebook is not the only problem.
